And Also In this issue:

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NOT in this issue:

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Campers, I'm Plumb Tuckered Out!

There is so much fantastic material in this newsletter that I needed a shoehorn to stuff it all in! I'm exhausted! As for you programmers, block out a week on your calender because all of your attention is required to absorb this stuff!

Hold on a second. Didn't we have a contest recently in the Liberty BASIC forum on Conforums? Why, yes we did! And in the first article in NL133, Janet Terra very nicely summarizes the origins of the challenge, the rules of the challenge, and the entries. Naturally, modesty forbade Janet from mentioning that forum members voted her entry best! (I'll happily mention it on Janet's behalf since no one has ever accused me of being modest.)

OK, so what's next?

Oh, yeah! Alyce's code editor, Eddie!, is getting nicerer and nicerer! This month's article on Eddie is the third in a series. See the first two articles here, and here. Adopting a feature of many professional editors, Eddie now sports line numbers on the left-hand side of the editing window! How the heck did Alyce do that? Well, read the article and you'll find out! Thanks, Alyce!

Janet Terra steps forward a second time with another article in her continuing series on Liberty BASIC's STYLEBITS command. In the current article, Janet discusses all the different ways that you can change the appearance of buttons. Here's a quick quiz. True or False: buttons can have a title bar! Anyone? Anyone? Well, it's true! And if you would like to find out how it's done, go to the article. As for me, I'm particularly interested in buttons that allow text on multiple lines. Janet discusses that, too!

Mike Bradbury, where have ye been? When last we saw Mike he contributed a demo on sub handlers in Newsletter 126. In NL 133, Mike provides a couple of demo programs for the creation of progress bars. Very nicely done, Mike. I don't know about you folks, but I love nice effects that are created using native Liberty BASIC commands.

Oh, boy. RodBird comes on board with an interesting article on using Liberty BASIC to control external devices through a circuit board provided by the Velleman Corporation. This particular kit mentioned by Rod connects to one of your computer's USB ports. In the zip archive for this newsletter, Rod also contributes an LB program which is a translation of a VB program which comes with the Velleman kit. (The Newsletter editors were unable to test Rod's program since we do not have the Velleman board. However, the topic is interesting enough that we thought it merited publication.)

In the future, I'd like to see an article by Rod in which he documents the construction and testing of a robot, or other programmable device. Thanks, Rod!

The prolific Alyce Watson doubles up again by providing another article in her highly popular series on Sprites. In the current article, Alyce provides step-by-step instructions for cycling sprites through a series of images. Don't miss it! No one can explain programming techniques as cogently as Alyce. Can I get an "Amen" on that?

In Simulating BMP Buttons with MouseX and MouseY, Bill Lopez reveals how an imaginary friend inspired him to make his code more efficient. Hat tip to Pablo! Okay, okay, I'm officially jealous. All my imaginary friend ever did for me was to persuade me to put a garden lizard in my sister's pasta!

Next, Jim Brossman discusses a way to add security to your LB applications that is simple enough for anyone to use. I recommend that you print a copy of his article and keep it beside your keyboard as you try his method one step at a time. Almost as an afterthought, Jim reveals that his LB program has had commercial success for several years! "Hobbyist language", indeed! Thanks for the nice article, Jim!

Nally brings to this issue an article discussing how to write Liberty BASIC user-defined functions which return multiple values. Hey, it tastes great and it ain't fattening! As a bonus, he writes a small demo program containing a function which returns the x-, y- and z-coordinates of a projectile launched into space. Yep, one function returns all three coordinates. See how here.

Finally, don't miss Eldron Gill's demo program in the zip archive, Tabs2Eldron.bas. Eldron provides a nice tab control program in which the main window does not lose its active status. Thanks, Eldron!

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What, Ethel? Oh, okay! As much fun as it's been, campers, I have to close out this newsletter. I've got a date to drink some cinnamon tea and play a few games of cribbage with my lovely wife! (Since I brought home flowers tonight, I'm hoping she'll let me win a game or two!)

Loved ones. Flowers. Cribbage. Liberty BASIC. Can life get any better, or what?

Liberty BASIC Newsletter 133 is now secure. Nally out.

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